German-Backed Search Project, Theseus, Given $165 Million Grant

Jul 20, 2007 at 8:21am ET by Barry Schwartz

EU OKs German Online Search-Engine Grant from Forbes reports Theseus, a German search research project, has received a $165 million grant from the European Union.

Theseus aims to develop an advanced multimedia search engine. The EU will allow German subsidy of the project through 2011.

We covered news in the past about this search project as well as the related Quaero project, which is being backed by France.

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

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5 COMMENTS ON German-Backed Search Project, Theseus, Given $165 Million Grant

gary price, July 20th, 2007 at 10:49 am ET:

Barry,

On ResourceShelf,

We’ve also linked to a few original pages about Quearo from late 1995 and early 1996.

Also, look for a link to more background from the current Project Theseus home page (in English).

Neuro, July 20th, 2007 at 11:35 am ET:

target market french and German farmers by any chance – I can smell the pork from here

wingthom, July 20th, 2007 at 12:02 pm ET:

Some clarifications:

1. the Grant for the research PROJECT (not a search engine) comes from Germany not from the EU, as it might be a violation of free trade etc. EU had to approve this first.

2. the Project ist NOT about developping a search engine but to do research on semantic web and other technologies; the money will be spent during 5 years (YES, not months like Google and others) and will trickle down to a bunch of universities and other institutions

Don’t mix it up with the French QUAERO project that is now mostly driven by Exalead, a French company indeed running a Search Engine.

There is NO EU Project, only some talks between France and Germany, a French Project Quaero, a German Project Theseus and the EU that has to accept such grants.

Not your fault – those projects are complex, even for a native speaker.

Paul, July 21st, 2007 at 3:26 am ET:

Yeah… sorry to say this, but it’s a waste of money and time. Anyhow, good luck to them, they’ll be needing it!

Paul, July 21st, 2007 at 3:47 am ET:

I just read wingthom’s clarifications. If it’s a research project fine, congratulations. But if their real hidden motivation is to implement the research work into a search engine, it’s a waste…

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